Sweetbay Supermarkets

The public is invited to attend an open house of a recently renovated Winn-Dixie grocery store in Bradenton next week.

On Dec. 5, the Winn-Dixie store at 7400 Cortez Rd. W., will welcome shoppers into the store for a special event from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Customers have the chance to win giveaways, listen to live music and sample the supermarket’s products while touring the new and improved location in Manatee County.

Shoppers can expect to see a new deli, which features a hot bar with hand-carved meats, an expanded produce section, custom-made subs and wraps department, an expanded bakery with specialty desserts section, a brand new cheese shop, new pharmacy and expanded floral section.

Last year, Bi-Lo Holdings purchased Tampa-based Sweetbay Supermarkets and began converting the defunct stores into Winn-Dixie locations. The Cortez Road store in Bradenton has been a longstanding Winn-Dixie store. Renovations began in July. In 2012, Winn-Dixie spent $6 million in renovations to update the supermarket on Fruitville Road in Sarasota.

Photo by Dan Wagner, Herald-Tribune staff

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

The Winn-Dixie grocery store at 7400 44th Ave. W. in Bradenton is the first of the company’s stores in the region to be renovated since the Jacksonville-based chain took over Tampa-based Sweetbay Supermarket stores late last year.

The store will remain open while renovations begin, Winn-Dixie spokeswoman Meredith Holland said.

Work is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.

No other Winn-Dixie stores are scheduled to be renovated at this time, Holland said. Bi-Lo Holdings, Winn-Dixie’s parent, acquired Sweetbay stores in May 2013.

The $265 million deal included purchase of 72 stores in Florida and the leases for 10 Sweetbay stores that were closed before the sale. Stores were converted to the Winn-Dixie name earlier this year.

The 44th Avenue store in Bradenton was never a Sweetbay Supermarket.

Photo by Dan Wagner, Herald-Tribune staff

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Sweetbay Supermarkets will close for good this week, as an acquisition by Bi-Lo Holdings, the parent company of Winn-Dixie, becomes final.

Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings will begin to rebrand 17 Sweetbay stores on the Gulf Coast, from Naples to Tampa this week. Stores will close on Saturday, March 22, for about a week’s time as they transition into Winn-Dixie stores.

Two Manatee County store locations in Palmetto and Bradenton will close on March 29.

Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings purchased the Tampa Bay-based Sweetbay chain and two other brands from Sweetbay”s parent, Belgium-based Delhaize Group in May 2013. The $265 million deal included 72 Sweetbay stores in Florida and the leases for 10 Sweetbay stores that were closed before the sale.

“Upon reopening as a Winn-Dixie, we believe customers will be pleasantly surprised to see that we have been working hard to provide the fresh, quality products they want at prices they can afford,” said Joey Medina, Winn-Dixie’s regional vice president, in a statement. “While the name on the fronts of the stores is changing, the people running them don’t have to. We’ve invited Sweetbay associates to join the Winn-Dixie family and look forward to exchanging what it means to be local and to working together to run even greater stores.”

Eight stores in Southwest Florida will close this week:

Sarasota County:

1325 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota

4230 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota

2881 Clark Road, Sarasota

458 U.S. 41, Venice

1254 Jacaranda Blvd., Venice

Manatee County

5802 14th St. W., Bradenton

2501 Cortez Road W., Bradenton

5805 Manatee Ave., Bradenton (Close March 29, reopens April 4)

515 7th St., Palmetto (Close March 29, reopens April 4)

Charlotte County

1951 S. McCall Road, Englewood

Sweetbay closed 33 stores a year ago, or 30 percent of its locations in Florida, including four in Sarasota and Manatee counties. They will remain closed. Ten Sweetbay stores remain open in Southwest Florida.

Sweetbay Supermarkets began as a conversion of the former Kash N’ Karry in 2004. Now it will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps as an extinct grocery store brand in Florida.

Photo by Chip Litherland, Herald-Tribune staff

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Southwest Florida area Sweetbay Supermarkets will close at the end of March as they transition into Winn-Dixie stores, local employees are reporting.

Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings purchased the Tampa Bay-based Sweetbay chain and two other brands from Sweetbay”s parent, Belgium-based Delhaize Group in May 2013. The $265 million deal included 72 Sweetbay stores in Florida and the leases for 10 Sweetbay stores that were closed before the sale.

This week, both grocery companies announced that they received approval to move forward with the sale from the Federal Trade Commission. The order will be subject to final approval by the FTC at the end of March, after a 30-day comment period.Local employees say Sweetbay stores will close on March 22 for 6-7 days as they transition into Winn-Dixie stores. That date is subject to change, as it falls before the official approval date set by the FTC.

Sweetbay closed 33 stores a year ago, or 30 percent of its locations in Florida, including four in Sarasota and Manatee counties. They will remain closed. Ten Sweetbay stores remain open in Southwest Florida.

Sweetbay Supermarkets began as a conversion of the former Kash N’ Karry in 2004. Now it will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps as an extinct grocery store brand in Florida.

Remaining Sweetbay Supermarkets expected to transition into Winn-Dixie stores at the end of March:

Sarasota County:

1325 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota

4230 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota

2881 Clark Road, Sarasota

458 U.S. 41, Venice

1254 Jacaranda Blvd., Venice

Manatee County

5802 14th St. W., Bradenton

2501 Cortez Road W., Bradenton

5805 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton

515 Seventh St. W., Palmetto

Charlotte County

1951 S. McCall Road, Englewood

Photo by Chip Litherland, Herald-Tribune staff

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

In February, Sweetbay closed 33 stores, or 30 percent of its locations in Florida, which included four in Sarasota and Manatee counties. There are 10 Sweetbay stores that are still open in Southwest Florida.

It’s no question that Sweetbay has struggled in recent years to compete with Publix, which dominates the grocery scene in Florida. The Lakeland-based chain has expanded into new markets this year too, like Tennessee and North Carolina. Walmart has also aggressively opened more supercenter and neighborhood markets in Florida recent years.

Even after a multimillion-dollar renovation nearly a decade ago, Sweetbay Supermarkets fought to keep customers who complained about poor quality and high prices. This year the company tried investing in “green” ventures to attract customers, by selling seafood only from sustainable fisheries and eco-friendly flower bouquets around Mother’s Day.

Sweetbay began as a conversion of the former Kash N’ Karry in 2004.

Bi-Lo Holdings is ranked as the country’s fastest growing retailer for 2013 by Stores, a publication put out by the National Retail Federation.

Photo by Chip Litherland, Herald-Tribune staff.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

OrganicBouquet.com is flower bouquet service that sells arrangements of organic plants grown with ecological farming practices aimed at improving the quality of farm working conditions and minimizing the damage to ecosystems, according to a press release. The company works with select flower farms in California, Ecuador and Colombia to make mixed arrangements, including roses, orchids and tulips.

Tampa-based Sweetbay Supermarkets is one of the first grocer chains to work with the online florist.

“Sweetbay is committed to sustainability,” said Nicole LeBeau, spokeswoman for Sweetbay, in a statement. “This Mother’s Day and throughout the year, our customers can feel confident that they’re doing their part for the environment when they purchase flowers through our partnership with OrganicBouquet.com.”

Tampa-based Sweetbay Supermarkets announced it will only sell seafood from sustainable sources, according to a press release.

The company has had a sustainable policy in place since 2010, but has updated it this week to cover 2,500 products sold in stores from fresh, frozen or canned foods. The policy states that the company will purchase seafood from companies that are farmed in sustainable ways.

“Where food comes from matter to our shoppers. This new policy means customers can feel good about the seafood purchases they make when shopping in our stores and know that they are farmed with care for the environment now and into the future,” said Sweetbay spokeswoman Nicole LeBeau, in a statement.

The Sweetbay chain, owned by Delhaize America, will work with Gulf of Main Research Institute to verify the safe practices of fisheries they work with.

Other grocer chains have made an effort to support sustainable business relationships, including Whole Foods Market, which was one of the first grocery chains to join the Marine Stewardship Council in 1999 to promote sustainable fisheries.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.